Platon
2008
Platon is a recent Russian movie about the new Russia, in which there is
much money to be made by those amoral enough to do what needs to be done. The
lead character (Platon) is a young, clean-cut pimp who takes willing, bored
girls out of the small towns of Russia and imports them to Moscow as upscale
hookers. The entrepreneur gets himself in trouble when he gets his personal
life and his business life jumbled. He puts himself in a compromising
situation that allows a rich sheik to marry Lyuba, the one girl Platon cares
for. The sheik does reward Platon handsomely, so the pimp then spends a lot of
time trying to forget his error by having sex, enjoying a massive amount of
money, and staring soulfully into the middle distance. The cures do not work,
and he still wants Lyuba back, so he approaches the sheik with a proposal ...
only to find out that he is too late.
In other words, it seems like a semi-ambitious Italian film from
the 70s, with the usual implied message about how amoral behavior, no matter
how lucrative, always leaves the anti-hero alone and unhappy.
Yeah, whatever. As faux-Connery would say on Celebrity Jeopardy, "I'll take
alone, unhappy, and wealthy for $1000, Alex. And while you're at it, kiss my
Finzi-Contini, and don't use your teeth."
It's a competent film, but one of no special merit, and there are no new
wrinkles other than that the Mastroianni role is now played by a present-day Russian,
and the part of Rome is played by Moscow.
There is some nice nudity from
the woman who plays Lyuba, Yelizaveta Lotova. In the first part of this
clip, she barely shows her breasts, then there is some unrelated plot
development, then (finally) some nice looks at her shapely bottom.
Here are some of the party girls that
Platon turns to when he's trying to forget Lyuba.